The Golden Bell (19 page)

Wiley laughed as she knelt down to hug her
dog. “Good girl!” she praised the collie and fondled her ears
affectionately. “You found me, didn’t you?” She looked up and saw
Jasmine, and her eyes glittered with tears. “Aren’t you a sight for
sore eyes,” she murmured, and embraced her in a crushing hug. “I
thought you’d never get here.”

Jasmine pulled back and gave her a wobbly
grin. “Blame it on your map. You forgot to mention that last curve
in the road.” Her smile faded as she glanced at the two men who
watched them impassively. She looked back at her friend. “What’s
going on, Wiley?”

“It’s…” Wiley broke off and looked at the
dark haired man Jasmine didn’t know. He was perched on a desk, his
feet crossed at the ankles. Her erstwhile escort stood near him,
which was also as far from Jasmine as the room allowed.

“I don’t suppose we could have some privacy?”
Wiley asked coldly. The handsome stranger inclined his head,
indicating that he had heard her, but he didn’t move. She muttered
something under her breath and led Jasmine to the far end of the
room, sitting down with her on a couch. Lemming came up and nudged
Wiley’s hand, and she absently stroked her while she explained.

“We’re on another world,” she began
slowly.

Jasmine glanced at the triple moons visible
through the window comprising an entire wall and then back at the
door. She nodded slowly in agreement. She’d figured that one out on
her own.

Wiley watched her carefully. “I was born
here.”

Jasmine’s eyes unfocused for a moment as she
pondered that. “It explains a few things. Go on.”

Wiley took a breath. “The guy who brought you
here is my cousin, Keilor.”

Jasmine’s eyes darted in surprise to the man,
and for the first time she really looked at him, scrutinizing his
features. Black, silken hair framed high cheekbones, reminiscent of
a Cherokee warrior, and the faint flare of his nostrils reinforced
the impression. She couldn’t see the color of his eyes from across
the room, but the expression in them of wary distaste was all too
clear. She was already far too familiar with the strength of his
hands, and the excellent lighting in the room only confirmed that
he was in excellent shape.

He raised a dark brow in mocking
acknowledgment of the introduction.

“You have my sympathy,” she told her
friend.

Wiley smiled slightly. She didn’t even look
at the other man, just jerked her head in his direction. “The other
guy is called Jayems.” They were both quite for a moment. Wiley’s
hands twisted her skirt. At last she said stiffly, “They won’t let
me go home, and they want you to go back right away and forget you
ever saw me.”

Jasmine sat back, carefully controlling her
anger. Her expression was cold, but a dangerous smile turned up one
side of her mouth. “Two words, my friend.” She twitched an eyebrow
and switched to Pig Latin. “Avyna, Ealsay, anda eytha anca ovesha
ita upa eirtha assa.” Navy SEALS, and they can shove it up
their—

Wiley laughed a little, relieved. She
understood that Jasmine wasn’t going to just leave her there.

Jasmine smiled slyly, squeezed her hand and
stood up. “It’s been real, Wiley, and I’m glad to see that you’re
all right.” She turned to the one called Keilor. “I’m ready to go
home now.”

Keilor looked back at her with a knowing
expression. He turned to Jayems and made a few signs with his
hands. Jayems glanced at her assessingly and signed back. Keilor
moved towards her. “Why so hasty? You just got here. Perhaps it
would be best if you waited to return until morning.” He watched
her closely.

Jasmine felt the panic flash like a neon sign
across her face and quickly looked down, doing her best to contain
it. She swallowed and said as evenly as possible, “I thought you
were in a hurry to get rid of me.” She bit the inside of her lip,
cursing herself for saying something so revealing, and hastily
amended, “Not that I mind staying to talk to a friend or anything,
but this place gives me the creeps.”

Jayems straightened from the desk and
sauntered towards her until both he and Keilor towered over her.
She didn’t dare look at him. “Friends,” he mused. “That’s not what
Rihlia called you. Sister of her heart, she said. Closer than
blood.” He paused and looked her up and down with too knowing eyes
the color of polished bronze. “Odd that such a one would desert her
so quickly.” Suddenly he grasped her chin and forced her to look at
him. “Would you be planning trouble, little sister?”

She met his eyes with difficulty, and kept
them there through force of will. “Who would believe my story?” she
evaded and then mentally winced. Why hadn’t she just lied? She
might as well just blurt out that she intended to bring the entire
U.S. Army with her if she could find her way back.

He studied her for a moment and then softly
snorted. Releasing her, he told Keilor, “Find her a room down the
hall and see that she’s comfortable, would you cousin? And post
guards at her door.” His smile was less than pleasant. “We wouldn’t
want anything to happen to Rihlia’s loyal little sister.”

She stiffened as Keilor’s hand closed around
her arm.

Wiley got in his way at once.

He paused to acknowledge her effort.
“Cousin.”

Alarmed, Wiley looked around him to rail at
Jayems. “What are you doing?”

His eyes narrowed. “Sending her away before I
break her neck for lying to me.” He glanced at the wide-eyed
Jasmine grudgingly. “Though I suppose she can be forgiven, as she
does it out of loyalty to you.”

His gaze glittered at Wiley. “There is a
limit to what I will forgive those who try to deceive me.”

“You said she could go home.”

His face hardened. “Keilor.”

Keilor gently moved the resisting Wiley aside
and continued toward the door, leaving Jayems to continue his
battle in private.

“You be nice to her!” Wiley shouted after
Keilor as they entered the gray stone hall.

CHAPTER 3

Keilor looked Jasmine assessingly. “Do you
want me to be nice to you, Dragonfly?”

She glowered at him. “I doubt you know how.”
They paused at a set of double doors a short way down the hall.

He flashed her a wicked smile. “I can be very
nice when I choose.” His hand closed over the door handle, but he
didn’t open it just yet. He moved a fraction closer to her. Warm
breath slid across her skin as he traced the iridescent dragonfly
pendant at her throat. She dropped her eyes, shivering just a
little as chills rushed through her.

“Be good, my Dragonfly. Be very, very good,”
he whispered, lifting her chin until their faces were only inches
apart. He stroked his fingers lightly down her neck, making her
breath catch. A warning glinted in his eyes. “You won’t like it if
I have to correct you.”

Jasmine pulled away and looked pointedly at
the carved panels of the door, resenting how he made her feel. He
was the enemy. “You get off on trying to scare women, don’t
you?”

Not really. Keilor paused, considering their
uninvited guest. Initially he’d agreed with Jayems that the most
efficient way to be rid of the human was to frighten her silly.
That plan had failed miserably. But who could have known about her
courage? Rihlia had been ready to run, and without provocation.
Perhaps it was time to find a new way of dealing with the
human.

After all, like it or not, she was going to
be here a while.

Opening the door, he gestured her inside with
a flourish. “Lights,” he called, and the lights came on. “Softer,”
he ordered, and they dimmed. His eyes swept down her body, noting
her tousled hair. She smelled like sweat and fear, and her eyes
were shadowed with exhaustion.

“Bath,” he called, and steaming water began
to fill a tub at the side of the large room. It was large enough
for four people and reached by a series of steps chiseled of blue
veined marble. A carved screen, now folded, stood between it and a
handsome armoire of red wood and mirrored doors. He gestured toward
the armoire. “Towels. The door next to it is a closet, not that
you’ll find anything in it at the moment.” He turned slightly on
the parquet flooring. “Bed.”

Jasmine glanced at the large bed against the
left wall and did a double take. Vines curled around a pair of
lovers entwined in a standing position on each post. She rolled her
eyes, grateful that she rarely blushed. Heaven help her. It would
be a miracle if she could get to sleep in such a bed. She dared a
glance at the headboard and quickly looked away, brain burning.

“Don’t you have somewhere else I can sleep?”
Her eyes skittered restlessly around the otherwise elegant room,
and then up at the ceiling. She groaned. An enormous mirror in a
golden frame was mounted above the bed. “I mean...with a less…” She
waved her hand at the bed.

“I could,” he answered agreeably. He looked
amused. “Though I couldn’t guarantee your bed would be
solitary.”

She glared at him. “Fine.” He raised an
intrigued eyebrow. “This is fine,” she clarified.

He shrugged. “As you wish. If you need
anything—something to eat, for instance—just raise your voice
slightly and call for service.”

Jasmine waited a moment after he’d left and
then quickly opened the door. Two wolf guards looked down at her
inquiringly. She growled in frustration and shut the door, locking
it for good measure. Then she slumped against it, done in. Lemming
had stayed with Wiley, so nothing disturbed the silence in the
room, or her thoughts, such as they were. Her brain felt
numb—temporarily shocked into immobility by the events of the
evening. Her body ached from her climb up and down the Alaskan
hills, and her feet throbbed and sweated unmercifully in her double
layer of socks.

A click caused her to roll her head towards
the tub. The water had stopped pouring. After a moment of
contemplation she gave a fatalistic shrug. Ah, well. What else did
she have to do?

Jasmine sighed and stretched luxuriously
against the silky sheets, then forced herself to roll over. It took
a bit more effort to pry her eyes open long enough to actually see
and process her surroundings. She sat up with a start.

“Jas...are you awake yet?” Wiley’s voice
sounded from a hidden intercom near the door.

Jasmine groaned and brushed the sleep from
her eyes, not certain she was ready to face the day. Remnants of
her dreams, something involving mirrors and a dark haired lover,
still haunted her mind. Well, she’d known this tacky bed was going
to give her nightmares.

“Jasmine!” Wiley sounded impatient.

“Come in.”

“I can’t—it’s locked.”

“Ah, nuts.” Surrendering to the inevitable,
she crawled out of bed and covered herself with a soft robe she’d
found in the armoire before going to unlock the door.

“About time,” Wiley grouched. Lemming was at
her heels. “I was beginning to fear they’d done away with you, even
though Jayems insisted you were still in here.” She gestured for
the servants behind her to enter while Jasmine stifled a yawn. “I
brought breakfast.” She crossed to the wardrobe and set a bundle of
folded clothes inside. “You can see if these fit you after we eat,
if you want.”

“Great.” Jasmine pushed her shoulder length
hair out of her face. A servant in a white and gold tunic and loose
trousers set a large covered tray on the dining table and took off
the lid. He set the table for two.

“Shutters,” Wiley called out, and the wall
directly opposite the door slid open like elevator doors, revealing
a wall of clear glass with a breathtaking view.

Jasmine drew in a breath, distracted from the
delicious smells of breakfast, and moved closer to stare in awe at
the sheer drop below her window.

It was misty outside, the kind of thick fog
that was almost rain, but even so she could make out the cove five
stories below her room. Towering redwoods rose on every side, to
the edges of the shore, though they were half hidden in the haze.
Farther out, gray sea met smoky sky in a seamless melding that
might have stretched forever, off unto the edge of the world. Or
perhaps it was merely the hazy glass curve of the magician’s
crystal that held this strange dream world.

“It’s an inlet of the sea—I forget what it’s
called. On a clear day you can see the mountains on the other
side,” Wiley said. Today she wore a sky blue robe with a long
sapphire tunic trimmed in silver embroidery. She stroked a sleeve
absently, in a faintly troubled way.

Jasmine shook her head, breaking the spell of
the sea. “Beautiful,” she said to Wiley, suitably awed. Then she
grinned. “Let’s eat.”

Wiley laughed and moved towards the table.
The male servant stood discreetly against the wall while the other
made up the bed and collected Jasmine’s clothes, depositing them in
a machine hidden behind a wall panel. Jasmine observed that her
white uniform didn’t appear to be the best color for a maid as the
woman began to clean the tub, and then dismissed the matter. Maybe
they had superior methods of stain removal here. At any rate, she
had more important things to worry about.

She spread a napkin on her lap and had just
opened her mouth to broach those matters when Wiley gasped and
began to giggle. “What?”

“You had to sleep there?” Wiley pointed an
unsteady finger at the bed.

She glanced at it, and the mirror on the
ceiling, annoyed all over again. “Your sweet cousin seemed to think
it was funny.” She surveyed the silver chopsticks and wide spoon
beside her plate with consternation. Perhaps she should have tried
harder to master the wooden ones in the Chinese restaurants back
home. Picking up her spoon, she scooped a small taste of what
appeared to be a sausage pilaf and nibbled on it experimentally.
Satisfied, she took the serving scoop and piled a small mountain
onto her china plate. “I won’t be sorry to see the end of him.”